Klaus Kinski’s Legacy Lives on in JESUS CHRISTUS ERLÖSER

Posted by Rodney at 6:39am.

Posted in Film News , Documentary, Continental Europe & Russia.

Special thanks to Twitch’s own Ardvark for providing German translation for this piece.

At times, Klaus Kinski’s reputation as a provocateur seemed to overshadow his prowess as an actor. Peter Geyer’s new full-length documentary Jesus Christus Erlöser (Jesus Christ Saviour) seems to support the notion that prevarication was an integral and inseparable part of the actor’s work. Geyer’s film documents Klaus Kinski’s November 20th, 1971 theatrical reading at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. It was on this evening that the golden-locked, hippy-garbed Kinski engaged an audience of thousands in a reading of a 30 plus page interpretation of the story of Jesus Christ.

The audience quickly took umbrage at Kinski’s readings, and the evening turned into a multiple-hour battle of heated words and raised fists. Scenes from this event were very briefly featured in Werner Herzog’s documentary Mein Liebster Feind (My Best Fiend) but Geyer reconstructs the evening’s events using extensive, previously unseen footage. What might Kinski have done to create such a scene? Transcription of brief German language clips available on the film’s web site indicate that Kinski did a lot.

His presentation and words struck many as an attempt to present himself as Christ. Instead of calmly responding to the audience, Kinski went on the offensive. For example, after someone stated that shouting down people who disagreed with him was unlike Christ, Kinski responded with a different take on how Christ might respond: “No, he didn’t say ‘shut your mouths’, he took a whip and beat them. That’s what he did, you stupid sow!” In another scene, he brow beats the audience by saying “can’t you see that when someone lectures thirty typewritten pages of text in this way, that you must shut your mouths? If you can’t see that, please let someone bang it into your brain with a hammer!” The evening’s festivities also turned physical as an audience member is shown getting bounced from the stage by a bodyguard. Someone responds that “Kinski just let his bodyguard push a peaceful guy, who only wanted to have a discussion, down the stairs! That is a fascist statement, Kinski is a fascist, a psychopath!”

Jesus Christus Erlöser is in the German language and is available with English subtitles. The film is currently playing festival dates throughout Europe. As of this date, there is no distribution in North America or the United Kingdom. One can hope that a thoughtful distributor will bring this film to a worldwide audience in the near future. Jesus Christus Erlöser looks to be an exciting, if not unnerving, glimpse into the bent personality of one of the 20th century’s greatest actors.

Reader Comments

Cinexcellence 07/02/2008 @ 7:18am

Oh wow. I need to see that.
Swarez 07/02/2008 @ 8:21am

Oh I love the ticking time bomb that was Klaus Kinski. This is a must see.
Ard Vijn 07/02/2008 @ 9:22am

Can you imagine: the last thing I did before going to bed last night was translating soundbites of Klaus Kinski screaming into my ears at full volume.

Couldn’t sleep for hours afterwards, but I can’t wait to see this. Klaus Kinski was such a special kind of idiot.

There is a brilliant sequence in “My Best Fiend” where Werner Herzog shows through an example exactly how ego-mad Klaus Kinski was. During the filming of “Fitzcarraldo” one of the local lumberjacks was bitten by a deadly poisonous snake. Hours from the nearest hospital and without any antidote in sight, the man wasted no time, took his chainsaw and cut his own arm off, just below the elbow. Kinski was furious all day because he knew he couldn’t top that…

Also, years later, after a fierce dispute between the two Kinski tried burning Herzog’s house down on several occasions. Werner Herzog recalls sitting in a acar with a loaded gun, waiting for Kinski to appear so he could shoot him dead. Believe it or not, they sort-of made up again later…

But damn, just look at the clips on that site, it’s a miracle they ever let him out of a cage!
Cinexcellence 07/02/2008 @ 9:33am

I’ve always thought either Willem Dafoe or John Malkovich should play Klaus Kinski.
Ard Vijn 07/02/2008 @ 1:30pm

Willem Dafoe came close when he played Max Schreck in “Shadow of the Vampire” (incidentally with Malkovich as Murnau), a role Kinski emulated in the 1980 version of “Nosferatu”.

Judging by the clips on that Jesus Christus Erlöser site, I think (casting against type here) R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe would be perfect, provided someone gives him some drugs and then makes him very angry.
Cinexcellence 07/02/2008 @ 1:35pm

Shadow of the Vampire is a really good film. And speaking of Kinski, I found this quite ironic: The first film I saw him in was Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. Within the first few minutes I was thinking that Kinski would have made a good Dracula. Guess I was right.
IEDParty 07/02/2008 @ 9:48pm

Total Douchebag.
Oh well, ‘ Jesus Christ ‘ is a fascist creation anyway, so it fits.
IEDParty 07/02/2008 @ 9:56pm

Gladhandling fascism, of personality cultish sort that drives people into mindless sheep, blisfully teary-eyed in the name of the fiction.
I guess Mr. Kinski tore off that ‘ Turin Shroud ‘ of patronizing and exposed it for the slave-whipping nastiness that it really fucking was. Useless.